


The Five Times Batman Died (and the one time he didn't)

by messageredacted



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Dark Knight (2008)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-14
Updated: 2012-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 13:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messageredacted/pseuds/messageredacted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are many paths that Batman could have taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Five Times Batman Died (and the one time he didn't)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written on 28 Oct 2011.

5.

Batman dies on the top floor of the Prewitt building, the Joker straddling his waist, a bar pressed against his throat. Well, to be exact, he dies fifty seven stories below that point, but it’s when he slips unconscious that the end becomes inevitable.

The Joker leaves his mask on when he shoves him over the edge, perhaps as some final ironic act of keeping Batman’s true identity a secret, even from himself. When Batman hits the ground headfirst, his body will be too destroyed to identify, but when Bruce Wayne is reported missing a few days later and fingerprints are compared, it will become obvious who he is. The Joker is long gone at that point, off to restart his reign of terror somewhere else.

##

4.

Batman dies on the monorail his father built, his old mentor by his side. The monorail crash is truly spectacular, leaping off the end of the broken tracks, slamming into Wayne Enterprises, sliding through the parking garage. None of that is enough to kill either him or Ra’s al Ghul, but the microwave emitter blows up at that point and there is nothing left of either of them except ash.

It’s the end of the Wayne dynasty, right there in the parking garage of Wayne Enterprises. This time, there is no connection made to Bruce Wayne’s disappearance, because Batman’s body is never found. Alfred locks the elevator leading down to the caves and no one goes down there again.

##

3.

Batman dies with a burning wooden beam on his chest, pinning him to the ground in his flaming inferno of a mansion. The guests left before the fight began and Alfred went to take Rachel home, so it’s just him there, coughing on smoke. His family home is burning down around him but all that he can think of right now is Rachel, who may be dying, and Ra’s al Ghul, who is loose in the city. Gotham will not even see this attack coming, and Bruce knows he has to help, but the wooden beam is too heavy, and he cannot lift it.

##

2.

Batman dies in the Narrows, the Scarecrow’s fear toxin making his head spin. He comes out of the window like a firecracker, his cape and suit alight, and he can’t put the fire out because there’s too much gasoline. He rolls on the ground in the rain-soaked alley but the fire keeps going and by the time it goes out, he’s severely burned. It doesn’t help that the alley is practically an open sewer. Shock sets in immediately and the toxin muddles his mind too much for him to find help. A few people who saw his fall watch from a safe distance, wondering who this bat-man is and what he’s doing here. They are the last people he ever sees.

##

1.

Batman dies in a prison in Bhutan, the only white man in the entire place. He’s been fighting against the other prisoners for days, mostly as a way to pass the time and vent his incredible anger, and it’s inevitable that he’ll lose eventually. The prisoners are not kind to him. They do not stop kicking him until his broken ribs puncture his lungs and he chokes to death on his own blood. He had left America looking to find some sort of vengeance, some way of finding himself, but on the way he got lost and he will never find his way back from here.

##

+1.

Batman is born in an alley behind the theater, to the sound of two gunshots. His parents fall to the ground and a pearl necklace scatters on the pavement, and Bruce Wayne thinks he’s going to die but for some crazy reason, he survives. He kneels over the bodies of his parents and tears wash down his face, but inside his chest he feels something flutter, as if he swallowed a bird. As the police sirens begin to wail, the creature that will become Batman stretches its wings.


End file.
